GMB PERSPECTIVE
YOU WANT A STRESS TESTING MACHINE? COME TO BRIGHTON!
This month’s insight into the weird and wonderful machi- nations of our industry is
once again hosted by Andy Peters, GMB representative from Brighton and Hove:
Having a bit of a technical mind - which stems back to my childhood when I would rather take something apart to see how it worked than play with it - I have often seen those YouTube videos of stress testing machines which are built to analyse how far a product can be pushed and pulled apart before it shatters and breaks. This allows for adjustments for tolerance of what is expect- ed of the product.
Isn’t it about time that we had such a machine for the taxi and private hire trade?
I recently called for an emergency meeting with the council and GTR (Govia Thameslink Railways) over the utter chaos of moving the taxi rank from the front of Brighton Station to the back, which has led to a reported reduction of some 30 per cent in takings for the permit holders - who pay £900 for the supposed exclusive rights to serve the rank. Additionally after having finally got a new important rank in the city centre, this has proved to be worthless because of ignorant Uber OOT’s (Out of Towners) parking on this and other ranks along with coaches, vans and suchlike con- stantly using these as free parking spaces, rendering these ranks unusable. The mental stress and strain is like a big boulder gather- ing moss at it rolls down the mountain ready to crush everything in its path.
Finally at this emergency meeting before Christmas, and also at the January main Trade Forum meeting, where all trade reps and licensing committee councillors were present, I strongly reiterated that I have had drivers contacting me, posting on our Face- book trade group page and directly on the phone telling me they are at breaking point. In fact I am very sad to say that it has been reported to me that this has happened to one veteran driver whose life has now been shattered due to the mental stress and strain of what is happening today… he will probably never drive a taxi again.
As locally licensed drivers we have to undertake ‘this... that and whatever’ to obtain our licences... pay for compulsory CCTV (when the OOT’s have no such con- ditions whilst predominantly working here
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out of sight of their own enforcement) meaning we have to mind our P’s & Q’s, otherwise you will get a demand from the licensing department where the CCTV data will be forensically examined... undertake a CSE course (currently voluntary but looks like it will be a condition of licensing)... pay for DBS checks... have our vehicles ran- domly roadside checked and so on... and now the council is pushing for us to go electric... most of which is actually not unreasonable.
However, at our last Trade Forum meeting we had a guest speak to us about spotting and reporting domestic abuse and encour- aging us to go on a twelve-hour course. I know that such activity is heinous and inflicted by both men and women and worth taking the course, but in all honesty this is just another responsibility being put on the trade. Apart from anything else, a lot of cab drivers I know just want to go out there and earn money to feed the family. I did politely thank the guest for coming but stated that realistically no driver is going to give up twelve hours to this cause.
It does seem we are treated like second class workers by the public and dare I say sometimes it appears this way by the coun- cil whilst saying “Sorry, our hands are tied”. Don’t get me wrong though: I consider that we are actually extremely fortunate to have a pretty good working relationship with our council compared to other areas, but I think it would be very useful for all licensing councillors to briefly drive a cab to experi- ence the reality of the job.
However... because of the state of the trade in the city which has been invaded by hun- dreds of Uber OOT’s encouraged by Uber to predominantly work here, I have great fears for my colleagues with the daily increasing mental stress and strain that they have to endure for what are effectively low earnings for the hours that are worked. I know that my own earnings can be a less than mini- mum wage after all the deductions, and I’m sure this is the same throughout the trade.
The whole point of this is that there is so much burden put on the trade whose mem- bers are mostly self-employed... but there seems to be no regard for the hidden mental stress and strain that drivers endure, and I would say that the drivers who are suffering in this way hide their affliction for fear of los- ing their licence as no driver is going to go to their doctor to get help for this unseen ill- ness... and it is hidden until it erupts.
I have to say that when I first started in the trade 37 years ago at the age of 21, I realised within the first two weeks that unless I had good self-control then I would lose it in a couple of years; so since then I have had to exercise a regime of self-assessment and become very thick skinned, which has helped me over those years.
However, hearing from some of my col- leagues about their own mental stress levels being broken is distressing, and as much as I try I can’t solve all the problems in the city for the trade - which is now making me reflect on my own tolerance. This is espe- cially true since for the first time I recently experienced an attack from behind by a drunken idiot. Fortunately I was able to come out far better than the attacker (this time) and was able to instantly show the police the incident on my dual lens dash- cam (
tinyurl.com/19-11-13) which runs alongside the council’s compulsory official CCTV system saving a couple of days of getting the data downloaded by the data controller. But this is just one example of what the average cab drivers have to con- tend with.
Reaching breaking point? It’s already broken....!
Andy Peters Secretary GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section
andy.peters@
gmbtaxis.org.uk
FEBRUARY 2020
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